The Saga of Ray!

As many of you will remember, we had contemplated reducing Ray’s anxiety meds. This was driven by the possibility that his night time restlessness could be a side effect of long term usage. Of course, if we could get him off the meds completely … bonus!

We had a chat with his vet and, after a superficial examination, she could see no reason for not reducing his meds, and recommended a 25% reduction for a 6 week period. If everything goes well, we could then reduce him by another 25%.

Ray has been on the initial reduction now for two weeks, and it has been interesting. He does seem to be less restless at night, although a number of other factors could be contributing to that. Are the foxes and coyotes still hanging around at night or have they moved on? Is the mating period for foxes now over?

He appears to be a little more energetic, which would seem to be a likely side-effect of a meds reduction however, he is just as sociable as before. We were a little concerned that, as the dosage was reduced, he may be more alert and possibly more suspicious of people and dogs (as he was when we adopted him). There is a possibility that quite the opposite has happened! Out on the walk this afternoon (Sunday) through our downtown area, Ray was going up to all sorts of people and checking their pockets!

Those of you who have read my book about Ray (“Who Said I was up for Adoption?”) may remember that we were expecting a high energy dog, to accompany us on our runs. Ray has never been a high energy dog, and we can only speculate whether that is a quirk of his Shepherd/Rotti genes, or whether his heart-worm history had left him with damaged organs. It would appear that his energy level is now rising just a little!

If the next four weeks are just as promising, we’ll reduce him another 25%! Who knows what we will learn about our beloved Ray! What will the real (drug free) Ray be like?

Good job, R. Checking pockets is a GREAT place to start when warming up to humans. You have nothing to lose there. Pockets hold a WORLD of possibilities! Hope you continue to improve till you’re medicine-free.

It’s interesting to see if his cautiousness and fear has really changed independent of the medication. We’ll see. Hopefully after all this time he has learned to trust. It doesn’t come easy. I have a semi-feral cat (acquired when she was very young) that has never completely gotten over her fears. Sometimes she even runs from me (and I am adorable!).